NEWS: In Texas, man gets 4 mos. for killing wife, 15 yrs for wounding man

A Texas man was sentenced to serve 4 months for the murder of his wife, however, for wounding her boyfriend, he will get 15 years. The jury in the case decided that Jimmy Dean Watkins acted in blind fury when he shot his wife multiple times as tried to call 911. The jury had recommended probation for that crime, and that limited the judge in the case to give a maximum of 6 months for the murder. Jurors said that they went with this verdict as they felt that he could not be rehabilitated in prison.



I wonder if the OJ jury found a new job in Texas. I don�t care if it was in a rage, he gunned down his wife and he serves 4 months? Then he gets 15 years for wounding her boyfriend? What about their now 16 year old who at the trial said he wished that his last memory of his mother was not that of her lying dead on the floor. I wonder how anybody in that jury will be able to look themselves in the mirror!

Oh man are you freakin kidding me? Being a staunch believer in the death penalty, I think this SOB should be inhaling some cyanide perfume. The poor son. I think that even the OJ jury laughs at this one.........

Originally posted by superdude
Oh man are you freakin kidding me? Being a staunch believer in the death penalty

Temporary rage??? :shk: what happens the next time he gets upset and kills somebody? Another 4 months? The members of this jury should speak out and at least give some rational explanation on thier choices.

Temporary rage??? what happens the next time he gets upset and kills somebody? Another 4 months? The members of this jury should speak out and at least give some rational explanation on thier choices.

Very well said. Temporary rage? So when the guy in the shiny new BMW cuts me off then flips me the bird, I can shoot him? Or is that only in Texas?

Originally posted by superdude
Very well said. Temporary rage? So when the guy in the shiny new BMW cuts me off then flips me the bird, I can shoot him? Or is that only in Texas?

I guess, maybe you can request the same jury??? I mean if they are this forgiving just think of how they would treat say Saddam Hussein or Osama?

I guess, maybe you can request the same jury??? I mean if they are this forgiving just think of how they would treat say Saddam Hussein or Osama?

You know, now that I think about it, that freakin' paper boy has been pissing me off lately. He must be 100 years old and doesn't get it anywhere near my porch. 4 months, eh?

As much as Texas loves to execute people, this guy has to be close to Tom Delay or has porn of Bush. I'll be spending awhile looking for details on this one.

There is actually a law in Texas that says you can shoot and kill both your wife and her lover if you catch them in bed. He will get off under appeal. No BS here................

You know, that might just explain why George W thinks the way he does. Try pulling that off here in the northeast, forget about it. You get more than 4 months for for not having car insurance.

when he discovered her with Fontenot.

Hubby got mad "when he discovered her with Fontenot." How delicately stated. Probably not drinking coffee. Probably "sleeping together" in the euphemistic sense, i.e. doing the Texas 2-step between the sheets sans sheets.

In this modern enlightened age there remain among us husbands and wives who have an irrational emotionally blind rage reaction to personally discovering their marital partners violating their expressed or implied oath of sexual fidelity. In that moment of emotional horror and betrayal they are not engaged in a calm dispassionate reasoning process. There is at times an uncontrollable tendency to lash out and destroy the cause of their intense emotional pain. It's a fact of human existence. Apparently, this man falls in that category.

I'm not suggesting the homicide is justified. But the scenario is a factor taken into account under the criminal code of most states in the USA. It goes to the degree of crime the individual can be convicted of. So, as damning as some of you may want to be of this man and his jury, the outcome is allowed under the law in Texas and many other states as well.

Mixing an emotionally reactive possessive immature jealous husband of violent tendencies and a wife who "is with" other men under such a husband's nose is like dropping a match into gasoline. There will be fire and often an explosion. It is very rare that spouses aren't fully conscious of their partner's tendencies in this regard.

Stupid wife. Stupid Casanova. Bad choice of venue for an illicit union.

There is likely much more to this story than the news clip discloses. After all, it was a homicide with a multi day jury trial. The news clip reduces it to a few paragraphs and, of course, makes the judge, jury, and system look bad.

[edit on 7-1-2005 by dubiousone]

[edit on 7-1-2005 by dubiousone]

[edit on 7-1-2005 by dubiousone]

Justice ? :shk:

It reminds me of what happened to my cousin in the 80's. She was raped by a 'friend' of hers and went to the cops. They arrested the rapist who went to court and was given two years. Meanwhile at the same time someone grabbed money from a building society and scarpered. He was found, went to court and got ten fecking years.

What's wrong with this world when stealing money is considered a worse crime than rape ?

Originally posted by Pisky

What's wrong with this world when stealing money is considered a worse crime than rape ?

...we all know property is more valuable than people...

Rape, wife abuse - never mind murder - makes me see red. I used to think abuse was cultural - But my research on fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) led me to question some of my assumptions. Now I think most abuse and violence is health related.

...FMD is an epidemic disease. The infection starts in the blood and lymph vessels - and causes vasospasms, even in the early stages of the disease. These vasospasms can affect any part of the body, including the brain, causing "mini-strokes" with "rage" as a primary symptom. As the disease progresses, it starts to eat other body tissues and again, can pop up virtually anywhere in the body including the brain. Effects on the brain can range from strokes, mini-strokes to ADHD to memory loss, epilepsy and dementia.

FMD Background:
www.abovetopsecret.com...'

...I remember a study that got a lot of press last year - it said that something like 65% (?) of prison inmates had diagnosed illnesses that affected mental function. Haven't finished my research on this component - anyone else have data on this?


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The jury at his 1999 trial found Watkins guilty of murdering his wife but decided he acted with "sudden passion" when he discovered her with Fontenot.

I suppose it was two entirely different trials and different jurors, so at least one can say that its not completley idiotic. The one jury decided it was a 'crime of passion', the other, that it was not.

I find the crime of passion idea interesting. Basically its saying that, if you come in on your wife with another man and murder them both right then and there, that you could conceivably be out of your mind with rage and out of control. They are literally saying that a person shouldn't be expected to not kill someone in such a situation.

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This is exactly why the law should quit trying to be moralistic.

This man is a danger to society if he erupts this way.

I don't accept insanity, honor, passion or rage as an excuse for knowingly murdering someone.

If someone is that mentally unstable they need to be removed from society for the safety of society.

Living in a free society requires responsibility for ones actions. He commited knowing murder and should pay some appropriate price.
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If someone is that mentally unstable they need to be removed from society for the safety of society.

Interesting suggestion. Do you wait until they have committed a crime and then remove them? Or do we devise some way of predicting future overt criminality and remove them before any harm is done?

Removing people from society because of mental instability would result in a significant thinning of the population! How do you defince mental instability? Where do you put them? Guantanomo, Abu Ghraib, DC? The latter is already full to the gills with people who are causing mayhem and homicide on a grand scale around the world.

Reminds me of the movie where three savants of some kind are wired into a police-state computer and predicted who was going to commit a crime. Then the person would be arrested and placed into suspended animation before the crime was committed, thereby avoiding the bad deed. Is that what you are suggesting?

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dubiousone,

Let me clairify, No one should be removed for simply being mentally unstable, only when that instability goes over the brink into action, causing harm.

No one is punished for the 'potential' to do harm. In a responsible society you are held accountable for your actions.

Only for harmful actions that are actually commited [for no good reason such as self defense] is a person removed from society.

Society [if it is intelligent] realizes it can not predict the future. It accepts its ignorance of future events. It only recognizes actual demonstrated harmful actions. You can go up to the edge in your brain all you want, but as long as you don't act on it it is theoretical.

If you start pointing a loaded gun at people you are taking a risky action and should be restrained. Playing with someone else's life nonconsensually is not acceptable either.

Gross negligence resulting in harm is also not acceptable.
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Originally posted by DrHoracid
There is actually a law in Texas that says you can shoot and kill both your wife and her lover if you catch them in bed. He will get off under appeal. No BS here................

..you're serious?

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Originally posted by slank
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If someone is that mentally unstable they need to be removed from society for the safety of society.

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Why not provide treatment instead?


...FYI - your argument also is being used to justify "mental competence testing" for voters. If things go as planned, most Americans soon will lose their voting rights based on "mental incompetence" - if they're not imprisoned for "insanity" first.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

An epidemic disease called fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) can affect 'mental competence' and cause various kinds of 'dementia' - these effects are episodic at first, then become permanent. FMD is epidemic in the USA - but it's not diagnosed or treated until it becomes life threatening. 65% of reported cases in the USA are diagnosed in autopsy, from a total of about 3.5 million new cases reported each year.
[�FMD frequency in the USA: incidence of new cases in adults diagnosed by angiography � 0.6%; diagnosed in autopsy � 1.1%.� www.emedicine.com... ]

The FMD epidemic is why the population of dementia patients in nursing homes has risen from 5% ten years ago to 60%+ today - and why the prison business is booming. ...FMD incubates silently in the body for decades before striking. It is eventually fatal. The infection starts in the blood and lymph vessels and causes vasospasms, even in the early stages of the disease. These vasospasms can affect any part of the body including the brain, causing "mini-strokes" with "rage" as a primary symptom. As the disease progresses, it starts to eat other body tissues and again, can pop up virtually anywhere in the body again including the brain. Effects on the brain can range from strokes, mini-strokes to ADHD to memory loss, epilepsy and dementia - and change depending on which particular part of the brain is affected at any given time. ...If you just have headaches or body pain, but no memory loss or rages or episodic dementia, be thankful.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Also FYI - In a 1993 study, Dr. Moreau and colleagues found the causes of death in patients with carotid FMD were heart attack (44.4%), cancer (33.3%) and stroke (22.2%) � now the three leading causes of death in the USA, in that order.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

FMD is spread mainly by industry, through contaminated food and water supplies. Progression is triggered by exposures to new infections and chemicals, also created and distributed by industry. The thing is: FMD's spread can be prevented - and disease progression can be prevented. But prevention will cut into multinational corporation's profits. So prevention efforts are stalled - and the disease is being used for profit, and population control.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

...We ignore the underlying health issues at our own peril. We allow the spin masters to manipulate our sense of moral outrage at our own peril. We are facing an infectious epidemic, not isolated incidences of cultural, moral or genetic inferiority.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

...Those whose brains are affected to cause dementia/insanity are imprisoned. Those whose symptoms are memory loss and mental dysfunction will lose their voting rights. The fact is, it looks like FMD hitch-hikes on the herpes virus to get around - and herpes now affects 100% of the US population.

Get the picture?



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[edit on 8-1-2005 by soficrow]

Based on what you have said, how do you propose to treat FMD? Are you suggesting that this is a case? THis guy was not exactly a nursing home candidate.

Originally posted by FredT
THis guy was not exactly a nursing home candidate.

FMD normally takes decades to become fully disabling, then life threatening - symptoms come and go on the road to full mental or physical disability, and early manifestations of the disease are most often "formes fruste," meaning less severe. However, early mental symptoms now are recognized more often, and the long term impacts are acknowledged commonly, if not officially. ...FYI - FMD causes vasospasms and often, unstable or high blood pressure.

Unstable pressure is linked to severe brain lesions: "White matter lesions in the brain that are associated with stroke and dementia are commonly seen in people with unstable blood pressure, European investigators report."
www.heartcenteronline.com...

“High blood pressure causes “cognitive decline” and dementia in young people as well as old”
www.medscape.com...
www.healthfinder.gov...

“60% of Americans Have or Are at Risk for High Blood Pressure”
content.health.msn.com...

Vasospasms: Vasospasm is literally a 'spasm' in a blood vessel - it may be momentary or protracted, localized to one small region or it might affect the whole body. "Vasospasm may occur in all of the parts of the body at the same time or in only certain parts of your body at specific times. Although everybody is different, there is a typical progession of symptoms that occurs with vasospasm. In the early stages, there is usually seen concentration problems, attention deficit type disorders, and mild memory disturbances. ...As the problem progresses, patients may develop headaches, then black-out spells, seizures, psuedo-seizures, strokes, transient ischemic attacks, and psychosis. The symptoms frquently wax and wane, or vary in level of severity or presence."
www.medforum.com...

Are you suggesting that this is a case?

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that something is wrong with this guy's brain. ...I am saying that anyone who goes "out of control," either episodically or permanently, needs to be evaluated medically and if possible, treated. As FMD is epidemic in the USA and it's potential effects on mental function are well-known and documented, the disease should be considered as a likely diagnosis. ...Also, as FMD tends not to be diagnosed unless (usually life threatening) macroscopic lesions are present in larger arteries, diagnosis should be made from a skin scraping test for (myo)fibroblasts.

how do you propose to treat FMD?

First, mind control is not the way to go.

Not to be facetious, but past and current treatment trends do focus on medical mind control - and attempt to treat secondary symptoms while ignoring the underlying disease. It doesn't work. Moreover, most modern drugs tend to treat specific symptoms at the expense of causing the underlying disease to progress more quickly.
Original title: Drugs That Reduce One Danger Have Been Shown to Create Another
www.nytimes.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Real solutions to the problem are complex. ...In fact, it's much easier to prevent FMD than it is to treat it - and likely less costly overall. Prevention includes 1) preventing spread and also, 2) preventing a) activation and b) progression that results from exposure to chemical and infectious disease triggers. Technological solutions for prevention exist, but are not used.

...Today, FMD is generally described as untreatable as well as incurable. However, the warning offered at the end of Hammesfahr's 1996 vasospasm overview suggests otherwise: "Although the diagnosis and care of this condition is conceptually simple, it is actually very difficult and potentially very dangerous. Rapid improvement can be the norm for most patients, but great care and attention by the physician and the patient must be taken. This can be dangerous without a physician committed to meticulous attention to detail and care of the condition."
www.medforum.com...

As with any problem - the first step to resolution is admitting the problem exists. Then comes:

PREVENTION:

1. Water. New nano-filters should be used to filter wastewater before it enters the waterways, and again before it enters household taps. Current filtration systems are completely inadequate and spread disease - as well as drugs and chemicals that trigger disease and speed its progression.

2. Food. Current sterilization and decontamination procedures are completely inadequate - and spread disease. Current regulations deal only with old forms of disease - and ignore new mutations and newly discovered infectious microbes and particles. New methods and materials exist to effectively sterilize and decontaminate food production facilities, but are not used - laws are required to mandate the use of effective procedures.

Common food additives trigger disease and speed its progression - singly and when the chemicals combine inside the body. These additives need to be removed - and laws enacted to force their removal.

TREATMENT

Early diagnosis is critical, but early diagnosis and preventive treatments are not covered by insurance - FMD and similar or related diseases are not diagnosed or treated before symptoms are life threatening. People without insurance are totally sol. This is why 65% of reported new cases of FMD in the USA are found in autopsy. ...Many diagnostic tools are available. For example:

2003 - “ ‘...certain kinds of human fibroblasts can develop into scar-type or fat-type cells,’ says lead author Richard P. Phipps, professor of environmental medicine, microbiology and immunology, oncology and pediatrics. …fibroblasts play a major role in scar formation, fat accumulation and inflammation. … fibroblasts may prove to be a useful diagnostic tool by providing clues to the severity of a disease or who might be prone to abnormal wound healing. …myofibroblasts result in fibrosis of the liver, kidneys, lungs and heart. Lipofibroblasts develop into fat cells and lead to thyroid eye disease and harmful accumulation of fatty tissue in the liver, spleen and bone marrow. …Phipps and his team discovered surface markers that identify which fibroblasts have the potential to change into myofibroblasts or lipofibroblasts."
SOURCE: University of Rochester, news release, October 2003. The research is published in The American Journal of Pathology, October 2003 edition. Also at www.prohealthinc.com...

PUBLIC EDUCATION

At present, public health campaigns hide the epidemic's existence and blame the victims - wrongly saying common health problems are "genetic" or self-inflicted, and pushing "Personal Responsibility in Health" eugenics legislation.

People need to be informed, and trained to recognize symptoms, identify their triggers and learn to avoid and prevent exposures. This will go a long way towards slowing progression and preventing early disability - and saving Social Security, the GOP and more.

....Obviously the situation is much more complicated - but these are few highlights.



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